Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Another contender in the US Army's search for the Airborne Light Tank. At the time airborne equals to C130 cargo aircraft transportability and air dropping.

It was 19tons combat loaded and was two tonnes heavier than the winner of the competition FMC's CCVL. CCVL then evolves into M8 Armored Gun System which was later cancelled by the Army. But M8 is by itself another subject.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Following the success of their Protector Remote Weapon Station family, Kongsberg has come up with a weapon system aimed specifically at base defense: Containerized Weapon System or CWS for short.

In a typical forward operating base, there are two by four plywood guard towers manned by soldiers, doing sentry duty under immense danger.

There comes the CWS into play. It takes the sentry from the tower to a secure, environmentally controlled location up to one km away from the remote system.

CWS can be transported on a truck, slung loaded under a Chinook helicopter or towed with its dedicated trailer.

The main components are shown below:

CWS is tethered to the command center via secure fiberoptic cable.

In a typical scenario:

-CWS is transported into location,

- It can be powered from

i. Its dedicated 1.200W solar array

ii. Built-in backup generator

iii. Power from nearby vehicles

iv. Conventional 110V AC circuit

- Top hatches opened

- Mast with RWS raised to position and locked

and the system is ready to operate from the command position. The command position can be up to 1km away from the system.

CWS can get feedback from external sensors via electro-optic recon pods, sniper detection systems and perimeter security sensors and automatically slewed to the detected threat for further evaluation by the operator.

CWS's bite is coming from a CROWS 2 remote weapon station that can be equipped by a .50cal M2 heavy machine gun or 7.62/5.56mm general purpose machine guns.

We will probably be seeing CWS systems deployed to forward bases and facilities in near future.

Dual-feed system. The dual-feed system provides the
user the flexibility to select between two types of ammunition,
depending on the threat situation and desired lethality. This affords
options when faced with difficult rules of engagement that require quick
transition between a lethal and nonlethal response. Next-round-select
capability enables users to switch between the two feeds, with the next
round fired being the newly selected ammunition.

Increased lethality. The LW25 includes a robust
family of ammunition that is compatible with ATK’s Programmable
Air-burst Munition technology. The PABM round greatly enhances lethality
over current legacy weapon systems with its ability to defeat troops in
defilade. The LW25 offers a dramatic increase in lethality over the
current M2 .50 caliber, M240 7.62mm, and Mk19 40mm Grenade Machine Gun.

High reliability. Due to its externally powered
electric, chain-driven design, the system has a mean rounds between
stoppages in excess of 35,000 rounds. This allows for prolonged use in
diverse applications and difficult environments where performance and
sustained firepower are crucial. Sluggish performance and constant
stoppages are a thing of the past.

Remote or manned operation. Also due to its
externally powered chain-driven action, the gun can be fired remotely
from weapon stations while the crew remains protected and under armor,
without the need for charging and manually clearing stoppages. This is
particularly important for applications such as MRAP, where gun access
and system reliability demand such flexibility. The gun system has been
integrated and fired from the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station
and can be employed in manned applications on ground, naval and
helicopter aviation platforms.

Compact lightweight system. The LW25 is a compact
and lightweight design based on the highly successful Bushmaster family
of Chain Guns. This combat-proven design allows for ease of use and
leverages more than 25 years of engineering expertise. The LW25 is ideal
for lightweight applications currently limited to gas-operated guns.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Somehow history repeats itself. Nowadays, US Army has begun investigating a light tank for the airborne corps.

In the early 1980's the same requirement was again under consideration and Aircraft Armaments Inc. - AAI has started an initiative to develop a Rapid Deployment Force Light Tank.

Enter RDF:

AAI developed more than one variant of this light tank with:

- 3 crew: 2 in the turret (Cmdr & Gnr) + 1 in the hull (driver)

- 3 crew: 1 in the turret (Gnnr) +2 in the hull (Cmdr & Driver)

- 2 crew: 2 in the hull (Cmdr & Driver) + unmanned turret

Vehicle was around 15 tons with a 350 HP Detroit Diesel engine coupled to an Allison X200 transmission.

RDF was initially armed with a 76mm cannon and a subsequent prototype was armed with a Rapid Fire Caseless 76mm cannon having 'burst' capability. So the gun can quickly send 5 76mm rounds to the same target to guarantee penetration at the target.

The vehicle with the low profile Unmanned Turret is futuristic even by today's standards.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

There is a new player in the game, Rheinmetall's new externally driven medium caliber cannon: Wotan 30.

Wotan is similar with the ATK Bushmaster series in the way that it is also electric driven. Rheinmetall's previous 30mm cannon MK30-2 / ABM gun that is arming Germany's newest IFV, Spz Puma is a gas operated gun. However the brand new Wotan is electrically driven following the success of the Bushmaster series with some new features.

Wotan 30mm Auto-Cannon

The gun is capable of engaging targets up to 3.000m. It has built-in Air Burst Munitions (ABM) capability thanks to its muzzle programmer which is a derivative of the successful AHEAD system.

Wotan has a fire rate of 200 shots per minute. The gun's advanced features employed with the proven lethality and versatility of the 30x173mm ammunition offers a good alternative to Bushmaster series.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The two-man turret has armament comprising two independent 120-mm smoothbore mortars mounted into a common cradle with an equilibrator and a loading device.

The turret is designed to meet the highest requirements of combat capability and to give the crew a high survivability level in all battlefield conditions. AMOS is characterised by its extremely high rate of fire that gives high impact on target—the maximum rate of fire is up to 26 rounds/min and the number of rounds in MRSI (multiple rounds simultaneous impact) is as high as 14.

The lethality is therefore higher than with any other mortar system. The twin barrel concept reduces the overall number of systems, has lower barrel temperature and thus lower barrel wear.

The mobility of the APC chassis supports vehicle survivability on the modern battlefield and the system can rapidly deploy whenever fire support is needed. It also moves quickly to another firing position to avoid enemy counterfire, justifying the expression “gun and run”.

The mortars fire conventional 120-mm, smoothbore, finstabilised ammunition. Special ammunition, such as cargo and guided ammunition, can be used directly as these were originally developed for smoothbore barrels.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Imagine an IFV armed with a weapon that is automatically loaded, can reach 10km's away, can fire in 360 degrees arc, send 16 rounds that impact at the same time on a target and keep firing 14 rounds a minute. The IFV that is equipped with this turret can also be employed in a direct fire as well as indirect.

This is the Turreted Mortar:

Sounds very interesting right? However these weapon systems somehow does not get the worth they deserve.

I believe turreted mortars have more advantages when compared with towed mortars or even vehicle mounted systems like M106 (M113 derivative) or M1129 (Stryker 8x8 derivative). Direct fire is one important capability that the others lack. Quick firing is another. And you also get the Crew Protection where M1129 likes do not have.